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Coleman (Wanda) papers
LSC.2282
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Wanda Coleman papers
Creator:
Coleman, Wanda
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2282
Physical Description:
75.2 Linear Feet
(182 boxes, 2 record cartons, and 1 flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1960-2013
Abstract: Wanda Coleman was born on November 13,
1946 and grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. Coleman's poetry is widely
anthologized and published, and her poetry collection
Bathwater
Wine
received the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. In addition to her poetic
career, Coleman was also successful across genres. She had a well-known column in the
Los Angeles Times and won an Emmy for her writing on
Days of Our Lives. The collection contains work produced by
Coleman between 1960 and 2013, including manuscripts and drafts of her published poetry and
prose, journalism, writing for film and television, and spoken word recordings, as well as
many unpublished writings. In addition, there is a wealth of correspondence with major
literary figures and institutions, activist materials, and ephemera relating to Coleman's
professional and personal life.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access
special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on
this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Originals in box 184 not available for consultation due to poor physical condition, use
digitized versions only.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials are not currently
available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have
questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All
other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not
hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Wanda Coleman papers (Collection 2282). UCLA Library Special
Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Austin Straus, 2015.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make
them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and
resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level
of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts
more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to
national and local standards and best practices.
Processed by Kim Calder in 2015-2016 under the supervision of Jillian Cuellar and Courtney
Dean in the
Center for Primary Research and Training
(CFPRT).
Mold remediation was performed on Box 185.
Damaged material in Box 184 was digitized for preservation purposes.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
8003376
Wanda Coleman was born on November 13, 1946 in Watts and raised in South Central Los
Angeles. When she was eighteen, she married her first husband, Jerry Coleman, with whom she
had two children, Anthony and Luanda Tunisia. Coleman retained custody of the children when
she and Jerry divorced in 1969, and struggled to survive and write as a single mother. She
worked as an editor for
Players, a conscious Black
gentleman's magazine, from 1972-1974, and in the mid 1970s, she moved to Hollywood, where
she became an active participant in the spoken word and poetry communities, penning works
for Studio Watts and becoming a fixture at Beyond Baroque in Venice. In 1977, she published
a chapbook,
Art in the Court of the Blue Fag, followed by a
full-length collection of poems,
Mad Dog Black Lady (1979)
with Black Sparrow Press, beginning a publishing relationship that would last for over
thirty years and produce twelve books in various genres. Her third child, Ian, with her
second husband Stephen Grant, was born in 1978. Coleman was also an acclaimed performance
artist known for her impactful readings. In the 1980s, her presence in the LA spoken word
scene led her to collaborate with seminal punk figures such as Exene Cervenka (X) and Lydia
Lunch, and she worked with New Alliance records to release a number of solo and split
recordings. Coleman attended Valley Junior College and Cal State L.A., and went on to teach
at UCLA extension, Cal State Long Beach, Naropa, and Loyola Marymount University, where she
held the Fletcher Jones chair in literature and writing. Prolific across genres, Coleman
wrote poetry, short stories, novels, nonfiction, and plays, as well as scripts for film and
television, winning an Emmy for her work on on
Days of Our
Lives
in 1976 and working as a featured columnist for the
Los Angeles Times. Coleman is one of the most widely anthologized and published
poets of her generation, appearing in prestigious collections such as
Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology and
The
Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry
. Her poetry collection
Bathwater Wine received the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize,
Mercurochrome: New Poems (2001) was a finalist for the
National Book Award, and her honors include a Guggenheim, an NEA fellowship, and the Poetry
Society of America's Shelley Memorial Award. With her husband of thirty years, poet and
visual artist Austin Straus, she hosted "The Poetry Connexion" on KPFK from 1981-1994. She
died November 22, 2013. In November of 2015, the Ascot branch of the Los Angeles public
library in Watts, where Coleman spent many of her formative years reading and writing, was
renamed the Wanda Coleman Branch in her honor.
The collection chronicles Coleman's entire career (1960-2013), and includes many materials
that provide insight into her process, such as meticulously kept records of submissions,
publications, and rejections; multiple drafts and revisions of poems, stories, and articles
with Coleman's edits; correspondence with John Martin at Black Sparrow Press regarding major
works; a wealth of correspondence with major literary figures such as E. Ethelbert Miller
and Sesshu Foster; many activist materials; flyers and other ephemera related to Coleman's
public performances and other "gigs"; teaching materials; photographs; recordings; and many
unpublished writings including a novel, a collection of newer short stories, and
screenplays.
- Series 1: Correspondence, 1960-2013
- Series 2: Works by Wanda Coleman, 1961-2012
- Subseries 2.1: Poetry, 1968-2010
- Subseries 2.2: Fiction, 1975-2012
- Subseries 2.3: Nonfiction, 1973-2012
- Subseries 2.4: Spoken Word, TV, Film, and Theater, 1970-2011
- Subseries 2.5: Juvenilia and Visual Art, 1961-1998
- Series 3: Gigs/PR, 1969-2007
- Series 4: Memorabilia, 1963-2012
Collection is primarily ordered chronologically.
Existence and Location of Copies
Digital reproductions of materials in Box 184 are available for viewing in the Library
Special Collections reading room.
Black Sparrow Press records, UC Berkeley
Bancroft Library (Collection BANC MSS 97/40 c).
S.A. Griffin collection of underground poetry,
Scott Wannberg, and the Carma Bums, circa 1950-2015, UCLA Special Collections (Collection
2248).
John Martin Papers, 1966-1981(Collection 1267).
Watts Writers' Workshop stories, lesson books,
and other material (Collection 0177).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
African American women poets -- 20th century --
Archives.
African American women authors -- 20th century --
Archives.
Coleman, Wanda -- Archives
- Collection Overview
-
Collection Details
- Conditions Governing Access
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
- Conditions Governing Use
- Preferred Citation
- Provenance/Source of Acquisition
- Processing Information
- UCLA Catalog Record ID
- Biographical / Historical
- Scope and Contents
- Organization and Arrangement
- Existence and Location of Copies
- Related Material